Wake up!
I’m awake.
No you’re not!
Slap!

Wake up!
Am I dreaming?
No I’m not.
I’m awake.

My dream:
I’m slapped awake.
By someone not her.
A dream begins:

Coruscating typographic glyphs
Leaves retreating
Roots descending
Tarmac glimpsed

Wake up!
I am/not awake
Wheels down
Then up again

Not awake
No landing
Still ascending
Still plummeting

Wake up!
Which is the dream?
Awake/asleep?
Slap me.

"Let’s have some fun.”
He posted innocently

“Where am I from?”
Him growled garrulously.

“I’m sorry; who are you?”
Was timidly queried.

“You.
Below;
The one you think you know
The submerged
The felt
The itch not scratched
Desires and needs
Beyond what is wanted
The insurmountable
The unknowable
Everything you should pursue.”

I go into the future
To remember who I was

I gravitate to the past
To know who I will be

I recline in the now
Being who I am:

Omni-present
Only me

20,000 leagues under the sea
While still 8 miles high
80 days to round the world

There and back again
From now to way back when
You, me, us and them

Round the top and
Through the bottom
Mediate the middle

Cross oceans
Ford fjords
Claim Everest

Start to finish
Begin to end
Again

dragons march
up the valley
spitting fire

dragon’s roar
rolls down valley
echoing

dragon drops
fall as rain
it’s fall again

Babies back from break
(At least some of them)
(Twelve speeches expected—
Six delivered)

Today hiccups stuttered
After three days in-HIC-in
Initially disruptive but gladly
Speeches uninterrupted

Today, Honey is home
Short flight, long drive
**** hiccups;
Honey's home

This is a time rhyme
A jurassic fantastic, an
Ichthyosaur score

I’m having a bones Jones
As a coprolite acolyte
If the **** fits, be it

It’s all just a flicker-flash
Our all-important mad-dash
To be immortalized fossilized

I interfere?
I'm in your way?
My presence offends?
If you want to be alone,
Leave.
Don't blame me
For being me.
I live here, too.

Make the Moses message minimal
Two tablets become one
10 commandments crucibled
Only one remains:

Don’t be greedy

Impulse affection vs.
Need for reflection
We meet and greet
Lean in hug, and then …

European peck on cheek?
Risk affection rejection?
%*******? Or
%ConfusedMale?

Real men revel in
Your successes
Clumsy man boys that we are
Show us so we know

A man with four names and
A heart as big as the sky
And surety of purpose
And graceful intent

Moves mountains
Changes lives and
Works and works and works
Not afraid to reinvent

We are proud to call him friend
Proud of his accomplishments
We’ll see you back again as
Our house, you know, es su casa

Mind games
Literally;
Now.

How?
Mentally
Find aims.

Hide shames
Figuratively;
Somehow.

I’m oscillating differently
The frequency has changed
The thrum feels different

We hum along as fish schools or
A flock of birds murmurating
Shimmering, scintillating

The live wire vibrates
Temperatures rise
Time to leave the flock

‘Twixt here and there,
slippage

What’s right and true
gets bent

This way or that
depends

On what you now
decide.

Should I stay or should I go?
Just get it on up?
Or keep it down low?
Pick up the pace?
Or chill it to slow?
Do what needs doing?
Does it really though?

What will I do?
I’ll let you know.

Every night
Keep it tight
Get it right

Surf alliteration
Say what?
Synthesize

Take the turn
Don’t fear churn
Dare to learn

fifty percent you
half and half me
not talking coffee, mate

conflict restrictions
blame game inflaming
regiment the argument

facts, ma'am just
remember trust
as you ******

We came from north
Some went east
We knew ones south

Then we went west
Life beckoned
We reckoned

We meet again
Friends to the end
And all the rest

What makes me a little more radical
Besides not on sabbatical?

Kids in cages
Too low wages

Border closures but
Corporate tax havens

Government shut-down
Over a border wall? *****!

Intolerance is rampant
Sharp turn to white right

Much of this is revolting
More than those not voting

LIBERTY:
freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.
—dictionary.com

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses
Yearning to breathe free,”

(But not your children;
They’re coming with me)
Not free.

"The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me,”

Then what?
Toss back to sea? Fate
Worse than Walmart?

What have we become?
…?!?
Who do we want to be?

There is a false bottom
Where we hide our hearts.
We make it, conceal it
And think it’s done.

There is a false bottom
Sins sequestered
Stories not told—
Unseen unknown.

There is a false bottom
Unknown even to us
Beyond that bottom:
Abysmal abyss.

What is not not true is not unnecessarily untrue—
Usually.
What’s actual?
It’s all possible
While not all probable.

Just ask Mr. Spock.

Sun is out
On Sunday afternoon
Summer into fall

I’m inside
Insulated
Cool

Curtains drawn
Ceiling fans on
Never thought we’d need AC

Not under boss of anyone
Soon that will be me

Freedom from everyone
But my spousely vows

Freedom is just another word
For third world adventures

We are emotional beings
And physical beings and
Psychological beings

Trisecting

One of them
Two of them
Or all three of them

Scared me today

Sorry to the man at Ace
And the other man at the other Ace
Thank you to young Sear’s guy

You might have thought me high
As I gripped the counter, red faced;
I’ll keep the ninety-nine cent four-way keychain screwdriver

It may have saved me

Take care of TCB; find out
What that means to me
Just a little bit

Day to day business
With care and
Respect

We dither we differ
We disagree
But with a just little bit…

Endless possibilities!

Behold!
The magnificent
Centipede!
100 legs cruising
At full speed
Ten thousand toes
But now suppose
He trips on tiny little
Poppy seed
The tripping ripples
An all toed tumble
With no intercede
Behold the now curled
Chicken feed

I want to redo some of this
White-out some wrong doing

Left swing the other things
Highlight the bliss

Put it back in place
And if by grace, it stays

I know when to post
And fortunately not to
What’s next is surprise

I’m not so right sometimes
My left turns are often wrong
My pronouncements can be ludicrous
Followed by ?#%£€! fallacies

Being right is illusory
#mybubbleistheonly
I occasionally tell myself
"Shut the ?#%£€ up!”

But I still speak my mind
Come hell or high water
High water is certain
Let’s try to avoid hell

It plays to pay it forward
Good deeds sung

It takes little to complement
Dividends that multiply

Causal or catalyst?
Only results matter

When I retire
I will follow my cats
I will go where they go
Their shadow
Inside, outside
Upstairs, downstairs
On the bed, on a rug,
Special: freshly folded
Warm laundry basket
While away the hours
Naps? Yes please.
When I retire.

to Gloria Allred
to Regina King
to Michelle Obama
to Ellen
to Oprah
and Simone
and Eleanor
Betty and Gloria
Angela and bell and
to smart women everywhere

best thing we old white men
can and should do…

(this list is way incomplete)

This is the new now
Every moment
Every relationship

When is done and gone
What was that?
Forever unknown

Parallax perplexity
We see what we see
Keep both eyes open

Time travel is trouble
Slippery spillage of
Who, is, was, when…

Now, stopping time is just fine:
No need to go; chill, bro.
Take time to hear the wine.

A slipstreaming scheme
Time without and not about
Following bliss, this:

Sit. Dream. Mean.
Your ****-show will still be here tomorrow
Time to borrow.

How do you map
The human heart?
Are lines between countries
Imaged? Real?

How do we meet
In the center?
The Tower of Babel
Looms large

But we look into eyes
See pursed lips
Lines around eyes
And we see:

Ourselves

We burble past
Rocky shoals
Gripping life-lines
Riding rapids

Then stillness offers
Floating freedom
Danger past, we
Row-row, row our boat

Passing the extreme
Merrily, verily, clumsily
Wondering what it means
It’s real; not just a dream

From “FFFWOOMF!”
To “pifffffffffpht”
Can you hear the

Cookies crumble as
Kingdoms fall; a
Causality clash

Story arc spark to
Comfortable free-fall
Happy endings to all

Problem ****
Floats right there
Odious, obvious

Truth was it was
Hard to push out
Complexity compacted

Elephant in the room
Restrained stain
Stirred words

Every moment is stolen
Past is past—
Immutable

Future is malleable
Maybe
We don’t know

We know now.  
Whoops!
Past.

I am right
With the world

If it all ends tomorrow
No sorrow…

I am right with the world
Here, now.

Ever watch a cat calculate?
Skulking at the top of the stairs?
Tail twitching; strategy switching…

Other cats already vectored –
Ms. Black oblivious at 2 o’clock
Red’s tight around the corner…

Slink or pounce?
Either.
Neither.

Cat’s cradle with
Gravity advantage
From the top of the stairs.

That’s one lucky,
Calculating
Kitty!

A thought thought
Is then thunk

Good idea! But
Think and drink

Too much thought
Thunk drunk

Might really stink
Reconsider, sir

Day and night being equal
At autumnal equinox
Tipping the balance
Of our planet’s wobble

It’s dark when I get up
Soon then when home again
Mercury retrograde
As temperatures drop

The reason for
The holiday season
Is taking us through the dark
Anticipating spring